Interactive image

How does religion affect family values?

I chose a shoulder because it represents the first time she saw a “gentiles”. A “gentiles” is what Tara’s dad calls women who wear revealing clothes. The quote I pulled from the book, “By the time my first roommate arrived, her name was Shannon,… She was wearing a tight white tank with spaghetti straps.” (Westover 154), answers the question because she was taught to not reveal a lot of her body by her dad.

I chose a person praying to represent the time Tara almost died. When Tara was in the scrapyard, all alone. And when she was done, she came up to Dad and he told her he wanted her in the trailer to dump a load of scrap. She hopped in and sat on some iron in the trailer to dump a load. But then, her dad put the throttle on the highest it could go, some iron came right at her and made a gash in her leg, then she got stuck. Then her dad pushed the button to dump a load, and she started falling. This quote from the book states what she was thinking and what was going on, “My palm caught off the bins side wall, which is now nearly vertical … then contained my fall. Because I was now falling from the side of the bin and not the front, I hoped-I prayed-that I was falling towards the ground and not the trailer” (Westover 64), a person praying fits perfectly because she was praying to not die, but anyone in that situation would pray as well.

I chose the bible to represent the time her dad had a time in the day to listen to the bible. And, if the passage is important, Tara’s dad would repeat it. In this quote it says, “He read the passage a second time, then a third, then a fourth.” (Westover 3). Not only does it prove the Westover family has a strong religious background, it proves that the dad is trying to get Tara and her siblings a better connection with the bible and God. It also represents the importance of the bible in her life, because we see a lot of times she follows a lot of what the bible says to do.

I chose an angle to represent the time Tara’s dad had a talk with God. When he claims to talk to God, it is about Tara’s decision to go to the college BYU. In the book, it says, “‘The Lord has called me to testify’ he said, ‘He is displeased’” (Westover 133), this shows that her dad is very disappointed with the decision to go to college, and thinks she will have consequences for her decision to go to college. When God wants to talk to someone, it is in the form of an angel.

I chose a black pencil in a batch of white pencils to represent Tara’s first time realizing she is the amount of women revealing a lot of their body. When Tara goes to church for the first time, she is one of the only people to dress like a Morman. This quote says it all, “I’d known that the members of my own family were the only true Mormons I had ever known, and yet, here at this university … I felt the immensity of the gap,” (Westover 159). The black pencil in a batch of white pencils is to symbolize the “odd one out” and how she sticks with the teachings of her dad and what the bible says.

The book Educated, it's about the life of Tara Westover. Tara is one of seven kids of Gene and Faye Westover (not their real names). They live in rural Idaho, a town in the mountains named Bucks Peak. Gene is the central problem in the family. Gene has almost killed her on different occasions. Tara works for her dad until she is 15, when she goes to a local grocery store and gets a job to save up for college. She studies to get a 28 on the ACT, a requirement to get into BYU. She struggled her first year but got a scholarship to come back. In her junior year of college, she had a chance to go study abroad at the University of Cambridge. She had a personal professor basically, and she had to write an essay on a book she was reading and the professor said it was one of the best. So she got a scholarship to go to there, but she finished at BYU and then went there. And during her stay at BYU Gene almost died by a tanker explosion. But eventually, she got her PhD at the University of Cambridge.